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gives readily when it comes to giving or taking. Like a piece of log; it sheds wood when you pull the saw and also when you push it. So, a noble man is very humble - he gives even in the act of receiving; he allows himself to be cheated when he gives to others. He gives more than he should so that the other person does not feel hurt. So he allows himself to lose when giving and also when he receives. Such a man is a noble (khandaan) man.
And there is no problem with the ego of such nobility. Such an ego will preserve nobility; one loses his nobility and becomes morally bankrupt if such an ego is not present.
My elder brother lives here in Baroda so whenever I visited him, his friends would ask me, 'Bring back a pair of pants', or 'bring me a vest' or 'bring me a shirt'. Friends do this don't they? And what was my nature? I would buy from the first vendor I stopped at to inquire about the goods. Then I would accept his prices whether they were high or low. I would buy from him so that he would not feel hurt. Therefore, I knew my nature and I also knew the nature of the people who asked me to buy things for them. They would go to seven different shops, insult the vendors while bargaining with them and then they would make their purchases. I knew these people would buy things even two aanaas cheaper than what I would buy for. Therefore, I would automatically deduct two aanaas and then one extra aanaa from the price I paid for their goods. If I paid twelve aanaas, I would tell them I paid nine. This way they could not accuse me of charging them a 'commission'. They would say, 'I paid ten aanaas for the same thing and you are taking your commission by charging me twelve aanaas?' I have never taken any commission. I have not learnt to charge any commission.
I have never taken commission in my life. If someone asked me for a favor- 'Can you make arrangements for them
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to release my goods, when you go there? Now that person may have goods worth twenty-five thousand rupees. What if I were to charge a commission of three hundred rupees or so in that? Would he even think that I would charge a commission? Is that why he asked me for help? No. He asked me because he trusts me, so would I violate his trust in this way? This did not suit me.
Questioner: But this is all natural, is it not?
Dadashri: What is natural? Can you take money this way? Not to do so is nobility. If one does not try to preserve this ego of nobility, in the absence of Gnan, then he will become completely bankrupt. We are noble people! Noble people cannot do anything wrong. Nobility is to not do anything that is socially unacceptable. A noble person cannot do anything that people will criticize him for. It is false nobility if a person claims to be noble when he carries out deeds that are socially unacceptable. No one will accept that. There is contradiction in a situation when one claims to be noble but others criticize him; this equation does not work.
If you do something and then say, 'I did it,' then the nobility (khandaani) goes away. A noble man will give both the times, when he comes and also when he goes. He is like the sawdust that sheds whether you pull on the saw or you push on it; he gives when he gives but he also gives when he takes.
Craving for respect
Now if a person was given a lot of respect (maan) when he was growing up, he will not be hungry for it when he grows up. If his hunger for respect (maan) has been satisfied in his childhood, then he has no hunger for it later on. A human life can be destroyed if one has been scarred with contempt in his childhood. If a person is subject to repeated insults in his childhood to the point where his need for respect was rejected,
